Clay Stidham:  

Life I have been married for 13 years now. I have two children, ages 8 and 4. Both are girls. After teaching and coaching at Shadow Ridge High School for 3 years, I have taken my first step in pursuing my ultimate goal of returning to Arizona. I coached 4 Varsity sports at SRHS. I was the Assistant Head Coach for the Varsity Football team. I served as the Assistant Head Varsity/JV coach for Wrestling last year. I was the first Head Coach for Track and Field at Shadow Ridge High School. I will be added Assistant Head Basketball Coach to the resume in 2005. Coaching has been my passion since my playing days ended in 1993. I have enjoyed coaching from my one year as a Graduate Assistant at NAU through my latest tenure at Shadow Ridge (with an awesome time of my life stop at Coconino High School). I will be dipping back in as a part time Offensive Line Coach next year with the Wheatland High School Bulldogs here in Wheatland, Wyoming. I have been in education for 12 years now. In those 12 years, I have worked at 5 different schools for 5 different principals. I am now taking that experience and putting it to practical use as an Associate Principal at a school of 360 kids. Wheatland is reminiscent of the Pinetop-Lakeside community I remember growing up in. I enjoy what I am doing now, but know that I have many other things I hope to accomplish in my career. My ultimate goal is to move back to Arizona eventually as an administrator and/or as a Strength Training Coach/High School Football Coach. School I think I fell in love with every girl at Blue Ridge High School at some point in my life. None of them could hold a candle to my current wonderful spouse Jill, who I met in college at NAU. Sorry ladies....I have been taken.....missed your shot....but who could blame you...I was pathetic. It is easy for me to look to the triumvirate of Paul Moro, Gary Williams, and Kevin Davis as the most inspirational people in my life. I will tell you that Lupe Acevedo, Bob Farrar, Tom Kuyper, and Merle Shofner were also very influential. I remember Mr. Roush and Ms. Peterson taught me valuable life lessons I will never forget. Greg Shallow was a wonderful man. Who can forget Holly Martinson? Kevin Bortin was the man with the plan that made it all happen though. Am I the only one who saw the power that a person could have in a short period of time when I speak of Jon Arvidson....my first football coach ever (7th grade)....Dude was a blink of an eye in Pinetop, but what an impact he had in that moment. I miss the 'good old days' on occasion, but feel that I really made the most of my time there, and I relive it all in a way through my profession. I strive to give young people today a glimpse at how awesome their experience can be if they invest their time and not spend it. College College felt like prison most of the time. Football owned me. I was fighting severe depression. I felt that I had failed in all of my major goals in life. I had wanted and dreamed of playing at ASU. I still want to be part of that silly program. I had such an eye opening experience, and with injuries to my body, it made it difficult for me to endure. That's what the experience became.....survival. I was jealous of my roomates/suitemates at NAU who seemed to have a carefree existence of partying, chicks, partying, chicks, occasional sleep, and the frequent partying with chicks factor. I also had the high point of my dorm experience my first year when I was fortunate enough to live with my best friend Kyle, and the two most awesome suitemates of all times in Sanfro and Conrad. What a time. I traded them for Raul...the 4'2" bohemian stud, who weasled his way in rather than my great friend Jeff Holly (who had his own special and unique experience that semester). Then my buddy...the Itallian Stallion....Danny...who saved my life by making me go to the hospital when I came down with appendicitis. My last year was spent with my college best friend, Erin Reeder, though I rarely saw him as I met my eventual wife and spent many an evening over at Rosebury Hall where she was the Residence Hall Director. The lowest point of my life opened the door to the brightest of futures, as I was 'fired' from my line scholarship and 'promoted' to graduate assistant football coach. This was all part of shaping my future, but it certainly didn't feel that ...Expand for more